The one-year-old girl, who was rescued from a borewell in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur city this evening, was declared brought dead on being brought to the hospital.

A toddler fell into a borewell in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district on Sunday. (HT Photo)

Kanpur: The one-and-a-half year old girl, who was taken out from a borewell by armymen and NDRF personnel in Kanpur’s Nawabganj area on Sunday evening after over 10 hours of her falling into it, was declared dead when taken to hospital.

The child named Khushi was found at 45 feet of the 110 feet deep borewell into which she had fallen at about 7 am on Sunday. The diggers reached Khushi at 5.35 pm.

She had fallen into the borewell, with an opening of just half-a-foot, upside down. Doctors said she died some four hours before she was brought to hospital at around 6 pm.

Many people, who accompanied her to the hospital while praying for her surivival, broke down at the LLR hospital on being told that the kid had died. Among them were army and NDRF men who tirelessly worked for 10 hours and 35 minutes to get her out of the borewell.

“It is heart breaking for all us, she couldn’t make it,” said SP West Sachindra Patel. “If the family gives us a complaint the police are ready to lodge an FIR and act against the people who left the borewell opened,” he said.

The army had flown in its experts from Bareilly and Haldwani in a special chopper to take over the rescue operation. Later in a day a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) joined the operation.

The NDRF personnel pulled her out and gave her to a waiting Col Dushyant Singh. “She was motionless at that time; but it appeared that she was breathing faintly,” he said.

Wrapped in a blanket Khushi was rushed to the LLR’s intensive care unit where the team of doctors, headed by JL Gupta, tried to revive the child for about an hour. The girl was declared dead at 7 pm.

Doctors said the child did not get oxygen properly because of her position in the borewell despite oxygen being supplied from three cylinders, from different angles.

Khushi’s mother Shyama had come to Kanpur from Kanpur Dehat for treatment and was staying at a relative’s place near Roadways Colony in Nawabganj. She had gone to attend nature’s call when Khushi crawled up to the five borewell and slipped in one of them.

It is alleged Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) got these borewells dug for soil testing related work that was required for one of its townships coming up in the vicinity. But the borewells weren’t closed after the work was over.

District magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said accountability will be fixed in this case. Showcauses notices were being issued to the KDA and the Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI), he said. The authority had given HBTI the work of soil testing and the institute sublet the task to a private company.